rwby snowbird: a bittersweet lover
by bunchofstories
Summary: Qrow finds himself back in Atlas after a long time of avoiding any sort of visit there. He is reunited with a past lover, Winter Schnee, and it is clear that there are issues between them that no one else knows about. But as they try to repair their relationship with one another, what will it become? Will they return to being friends, or will some burried feelings reappear?
1. Reunion

_"I'm actually already romantically involved with__ someone."_

Qrow blinked a couple of times, not having expected to hear this from Winter on his first day back to Atlas. He and the team had just arrived with the relic that night and were staying in an apartment near the army base. Luckily for them, the apartment complex was completely inhabited by other members of the military, so not only were they safe, but each team got their own room.

That is except Qrow. The rooms could fit four or five people at most and Maria had gone with team RWBY since they had a five person room, and Oscar went with JNR in a four person room, leaving Qrow to have to be forced to stay with Winter for the lack of any other rooms. She of course had been reluctant due to their history, but Ironwood had said it was best for her to keep her eye out for him and she was of course one to take orders from her general.

"There are sensitive documents in my apartment, if you dare as to even look through anything, I will personally kick you to the curb." Winter had warned him as they arrived to her room for the night.

"Don't worry, ice queen. The only thing I'd do with those stupid papers is throw them out." Qrow had playfully scoffed, finding that being part of the military required too much paperwork, all he wanted to do to help the world was fight.

Winter rolled her eyes as she unlocked her apartment room, holding the door open for him. "Never thought I'd have to bring the devil into my house."

"If by devil you mean a handsome devil then you're absolutely right." Qrow confidently said as he walked into Winter's apartment. He wasn't at all surprised to see how basic her room was, it was simply gray, no fun colors popped out anywhere. There were folders and packets all over the room, on the couch, table, kitchen counter, chairs, you name it.

"You know, for someone who complains a lot about literally anything, I certainly thought that you'd be more tidy than this." Qrow playfully tsked as he flopped onto a clean part on the couch.

"Well I wasn't aware that I'd have someone over tonight." Winter crossed her arms. "I'll pick them up in the morning before I head off to work." She promised before going to the kitchen to serve herself a glass of wine.

"Woah, didn't take you much for a drinker." Qrow said as he watched her serve herself the glass of wine.

"Just one glass per night as a reward for my work." Winter stated as she leaned on the counter, looking at him with a glare. "You have no right to comment on my drinking habits."

Qrow scoffed and looked away, knowing that she was referring to his drunken habits. "I'll have you know that I decided to try and stop those habits."

Winter was genuinely surprised by this, not having taken him for one who would want to stop being an alcoholic. She had met him when he was already making his way down that road.

There was silence for a while, neither really knowing what else to say regarding the situation. Winter questioned if she wanted to comment something, but she knew she'd regret bringing it up.

_"I can't do this anymore, Qrow."_

_"What's wrong? What did I do this time?"_

_"The alcohol, the lack of communication, I just can't handle any of this. I try talking to you but all you do is ignore me. I'm sorry but I just can't anymore..."_

Winter quickly shook the memory away, not wanting to recall the time she had been with Qrow so many years ago. They had been naive, rushed things way too quickly, and they hadn't even lasted long either. It was just a big mistake on both of their parts.

"So, um, how have you been?" Qrow asked after a while, pulling Winter away from her thoughts which she was clearly deeply thinking about.

"Huh? Oh.. I've been doing good, quite wonderfully actually." Winter tried to play off, not knowing why she added that last bit, most likely because she wanted to prove that she was doing good without him.

"That's good to hear, have you.. have you been seeing anyone?" Qrow asked, nervous to bring something like this up, but he figured that he could lighten the mood and tease her for being alone since he did assume that she was single.

Unfortunately for him however, Qrow's plans to make fun of Winter were quickly crushed. Instead of light hearted teasing, he would receive some news that would quickly take over his thoughts.

"Yes. I'm actually already romantically involved with someone."


	2. mixed feelngs

Qrow was silent for a moment, processing what Winter had just said. _She's dating someone? Who is it? Since when? _Were just a couple of the hundreds of questions that came into his mind at that moment.

"Um, Qrow?" Winter asked as she set her half empty glass of wine down on the counter.

"Oh? What? Oh, I'm just, um, simply surprised that someone actually wanted to date you." Qrow tried to play it off, and luckily for him, Winter's scoff meant that it had worked.

"What's so surprising about that? You act like we weren't a thing a while back." Winter decided to bring up, hoping that it wasn't an awkward topic anymore since it had been a while, and Qrow had always loved to shove the hundreds of compliments from girls he got in her face.

Qrow was surprised that Winter had brought it up, not aware of how much that would sting until he heard the words in person for himself. "That was just a tease. I'm happy for you, kid." He sheepishly chuckled.

"Don't call me kid." Winter said, regretting bringing up their past already. She may not know Qrow much, but she could tell from his reaction that she had hurt him. _Does he still like me? _She couldn't help but wonder, but she quickly shook the thought away. _We haven't been in contact. Of course not. And even if he does, I'm already in a relationship so it's his loss._

There was an awkward silence again, neither of them wanting to continue on the subject of their failed relationship. Winter wasn't going to apologize, and Qrow didn't know what else to say.

After a while, Winter decided to finally speak up. "Anyways.. you'll be sleeping on this couch. I'll clear up my paperwork and you can go to bed." She made her way towards the couch and nervously picked her folders and paperwork up from around of Qrow.

_Has her presence always been this.. intense? _Qrow thought to himself as he felt Winter's warmth from afar. She was barely even near him, and yet he still felt himself tense up from how close they were.

Winter tried to quickly pick her papers up due to the awkward tension in the room. She noticed Qrow get nervous from her closeness, and rushed more to pick up the last of her papers, setting them on the desk besides of her bed. After it was clean, she went into the bathroom to get into her pajamas, leaving Qrow alone to himself.

Qrow made sure that Winter was out of the room before letting out a sigh and resting his head into his hands. _I'm a goddamn idiot. What's wrong with me, I had my chance. Wait, no.. no no no, I'm over her, this is fine, I'm just worried for her as a friend. Yes. It's that. _He tried to convince himself.

_General Ironwood is so lucky that I respect him so much. If not I would have never let Qrow in here. _Winter thought to herself as she let her hair down. _I'll have a word with him tomorrow to change Qrow's living arrangements._

As Qrow desperately tried to convince himself that his feelings for Winter were no more, he hadn't noticed when she entered the room again. "Here are a spare blanket and pillow that you can use for tonight." She said before tossing the items onto the couch.

Qrow groaned softly as she had purposely thrown the pillow at him with a bit of force. "Hey-!" he began to say before losing focus once he got a good look at her.

Saying that she looked beautiful would be an understatement, she was absolutely stunning. The way her hair perfectly framed her face, making her look more carefree than the seriousness of her bun. And oh lord the way that the outside light highlighted her hair in the dark room, Qrow wanted to have her right then and there.

_Wait, what the hell am I thinking?! Stop that. _Qrow scolded at himself, forcing himself to look away from her as if nothing had happened. "Thanks."

"No problem. We have to meet General Ironwood tomorrow at nine o'clock. I leave for work at five am so you'll have to head out on your own." Winter instructed him. "So don't be late. Goodnight." Winter said before going to her room to go to bed.

Qrow groaned at the thought of being in a fancy Atlas meeting, especially since Ironwood would be attending the meeting. However, he felt a bit of comfort knowing that Winter would be there in the room.

_I'm really the worlds biggest idiot, aren't I?_


	3. troubles

Even mornings in Atlas were dark and gloomy, there was no bright sunshine to wake up to, no birds chirping and bringing food for their young ones, and no children outside laughing and making their way to school.

No, there was only the sound of airships going off in the distance, and if there were no ships in the air, there was only silence. But at least today was a calmer day than usual, and by that it meant that it was not currently snowing.

Winter began to stir awake at around 4 am, she may have just gone to sleep but she had to get ready and had to go fill out some important papers before attending one of the General's meetings.

She was exhausted but of course also very excited for another day at work. She would always be incredibly thankful for her important position in the military and so she gave herself the motivation to get up and get ready.

In all of her Atlas pride, Winter forgot about the unwanted guest resting on the couch. So once she was in her uniform and was heading to the bathroom to fix up her hair, she panicked for a moment as she heard some soft snoring.

"Who-?!" She exclaimed before covering her mouth to not wake him up. _Crap, I forgot that he was here_. She thought as she calmed herself back down.

Qrow was fast asleep, definitely not going to wake up soon. Winter was understanding towards this because she had heard about their battle with the giant sea grimm the day before.

_I'm surprised that he didn't run off to find a bar. _Winter softly sighed, knowing that's usually what he did when he arrived to the location of a mission. But then she remembered his words the previous night.

"_I'll have you know that I decided to try and stop those habits."_

_Is he really going to be serious about that? _Winter wondered to herself, she really hoped that was the case. Sadly her mother had been an alcoholic all of her life and she knew the effects of what that could do to people.

Winter allowed herself a drink once in a while, and only of the least alcoholic wine. But she decided that to help Qrow with this difficult challenge, she'd hide the wine away while he was around. She would put their petty bickering aside just for this matter.

She went to take the wine bottle and locked it away in a cabinet in the kitchen, only accessible with one of her glyphs. She smiled proudly at herself for being so genius. _He'll never get it now_

Once finishing this task, Winter quickly went to go finish up preparing for the day. Putting her hair up into a bun, making herself a healthy breakfast, and finding the paperwork she needed for the day.

There was another distraction awaiting for her that moment, and that distraction was named Jonas Aspen. Her boyfriend.

As Winter collected her files, she felt he scroll vibrate in her pocket. _New Message from Jonas Aspen! _It said.

She smiled a bit from receiving the message. It was just a simple good morning text but it meant a lot. She didn't like being left in the dark.

_Good morning, beautiful_

_Will you be available to go on a date later today?_

Winter frowned a bit, it always pained her to have to turn him down. She knew that she had too much work to do, and especially now that a relic had been brought to them.

_Good morning. Unfortunately I can't today, you know the drill._

Winter anxiously waited for a response, hoping that they could reshedule for another day. Once it arrived, she was not surprised by his reaction.

_Oh. Okay. Today's my last day off for a while so if any time opens up today please let me know :) _

Winter frowned some more, wanting to see him more often but knowing that both of their schedules made that difficult. Jonas and her had been able to hang out multiple times and those times were good and memorable, but she was beginning to notice how their time spent together was slowly decreasing.

Before Winter could get any deeper in thought, the alarm on her scroll rang. She'd have to go to work now. She tried to quickly shake the bad feelings away before making her way out of the apartment.

_I don't have a good feeling about this_


	4. search

Qrow awoke to the sound of his scroll ringing. He groaned and ignored it for a while, trying to go back to his peaceful slumber. He didn't even think twice about if it was an alarm or if it was a phone call.

Qrow assumed that it was still early morning since it was quite cloudy outside, he had no idea that it was actually time for the meeting.

It wasn't until after Winter left a voice mail that Qrow finally sprung awake.

"Good morning, Mr. Branwen. You are late to your meeting with General Ironwood. The rest of your crew is present so please let it be that you make your way over to the head office. Thank you."

Qrow basically screamed upon hearing Winter speak so closely to him since his scroll was besides of him on the couch. "I'm up!" He said as he sat up. But of course once he got up, he saw that that he was completely alone in the apartment.

He groaned and rested his head in his hands, feeling a bit of a hangover since he had been dangerously drunk for a couple days in a row now.

As he tried to regain balance and focus, he tried to process what had woken him up.

"...Crap, the meeting!" He exclaimed as he looked around the couch for his scroll, throwing the blanket and pillows onto the ground. Unluckily for him, he accidentally managed to toss his scroll along with the items.

Qrow muttered curse words under his breath and went to go grab his scroll from underneath of Winter's working desk where it has landed. He tossed the pillows and blanket back onto the couch and checked the time on his scroll.

"...they're all definitely going to kill me."

He groaned from letting himself sleep in so late, and checked the small clock on Winter's desk just to make sure that the time was the same as the one on his scroll.

"Yep, my scroll isn't wrong." He softly sighed before suddenly getting distracted by a framed picture that was placed next to the clock.

He gently picked it up to get a better look. There were two people in the picture, Winter, and a man that he had never seen before.The man was tall with silvery blue hair. He seemed around Winter's age, mature looking but with no facial hair. The man had on a bright smile, and had his arm wrapped around of Winter's shoulder. Was she.. smiling? It was a small smile, but it was still quite surprising.

Qrow couldn't help but stare at the photo. _She really does have a boyfriend doesn't she? Gosh he's so... perfect for her. _He thought to himself, trying to convince himself to be happy for her.

He pulled out his flask and took a swig of it.

_It's just one sip, it won't hurt me. _He thought to himself, trying to convince himself that it was okay. He put the picture back down and put his flask away. It was getting empty.

Qrow tried to think deeply into his brain. _Have these feelings for Winter always been here? Do I have a right to be jealous? _He thought to himself as he tried to avoid staring at the picture again, feeling his heart hurt more and more after every look.

Qrow sighed to himself and ran his fingers through his hair to fix it up as he made his way out of the apartment.

"Better late than never."


End file.
